2009 Chevrolet Impala

VEHICLE GIVES A SERVICE THROTTLE STARTING DISABLED MESSAGE AND PROMPTLY SHUTS OFF THE ENGINE. IF YOU WAIT 5 MINUTES THE CAR WILL RESTART AND PERFORM AS USUAL.....UNTIL THE NEXT TIME. SHUTTING OFF THE ENGINE AT INTERSTATE SPEEDS IS INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS AND IS GOING TO RESULT IN SOMEONE BEING KILLED. BASED UPON INTERNET SEARCHES THIS APPEARS TO BE A KNOWN ISSUE, BUT GM WILL NOT PROACTIVELY FIX THE PROBLEM. *TR

PURCHASED VEHICLE ON 9/6/2012 USED WITH 27,479 MILES. ON 9/19/2012 WITH 27,960 MILES, I WAS ACCELERATING ON AN ONRAMP GETTING ON A HIGHWAY AND TWO MESSAGES APPEARED ON MY DASH: "REDUCED ENGINE POWER" AND "SERVICE TRACTION CONTROL AS WELL AS THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT. EXPERIENCE ROUGH AND HESITANT SHIFTING BETWEEN GEARS AND COULD NOT GO FASTER THAN 35MPH. WAS ABLE TO SAFELY NAVIGATE HOME ON SIDE ROADS. I TOOK IT TO THE DEALER I PURCHASED IT FROM FOR SERVICE AND WAS TOLD IT WAS READING CODE P2138 AND THE THROTTLE PEDAL ASSEMBLY NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE SERVICE WAS COVERED UNDER THE DEALER'S WARRANTY AND I WAS SET TO GO. FLASH FORWARD TO 10/24/2012 WITH 29,355 MILES, I WAS DRIVING ON A SIDE ROAD AND THE SAME MESSAGES CAME UP. I CALLED ON STAR AND THEY PERFORMED A DIAGNOSTIC WHICH RESULTED IN THE COMPUTER READING CODES P2138 AND C0242. EXPERIENCED OUT OF CONTROL WHEEL SPINNING AND SENSITIVE BRAKING. TOOK IT TO A DEALER IN THE AREA I WAS CURRENTLY IN TRAVELING FOR BUSINESS AND THEY COULD NOT DIAGNOSE WITH ANY ISSUE. ALL CODES AND LIGHTS WERE NOT ENGAGED. I STILL DID NOT FEEL SAFE DRIVING MY VEHICLE DUE TO PROBLEM WITH ACCELERATOR AND HAD TOWED TO THE PURCHASING DEALER NEAR MY HOME. THEY ALSO COULD NOT DIAGNOSE WITH ANY ISSUE AS THEY COULD NOT DUPLICATE THE ERROR. THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY CONCERN AND A PROBLEM (ESPECIALLY ON THE HIGHWAY) WITH A POPULAR MODEL. I HAVE ALSO FILED A COMPLAINT WITH GM ON THIS ISSUE AND AM HOPING TO HAVE IT RESOLVED IMMEDIATELY. *TR

I WAS TURNING LEFT INTO A DRIVEWAY GOING NO MORE THAN 7 MILES AN HOUR, BECAUSE I WAS FOLLOWING A CAR, WHEN I HEARD A LARGE GRIND THEN POP. I PARKED MY CAR AND KNEW IMMEDIATELY THE TRANSMISSION FAILED BY THE FLUID TRAIL AND PART LEFT BEHIND. I TOOK IT TO A DEALER AND LUCKILY IT WAS COVERED UNDER THE POWER TRAIN WARRANTY. A WEEK AFTER RECEIVING MY VEHICLE BACK THE ALIGNMENT WAS OFF, DRIVER-SIDE HEADLIGHT SOCKET CAUGHT FIRE, I HAVE LABORED START UP, HAVE STALLED ON THE FREEWAY! AND HAVE STABILITRAK, AIRBAG, AND REDUCED ENGINE POWER ERROR CODES THAT RANDOMLY APPEAR. *TR

AS I WAS DRIVING TO GOLF ON MONDAY SEPTEMBER 24TH, ON INTERSTATE I-80 HEADING WEST, MY 2009 CHEVY IMPALA ONBOARD COMPUTER STATED THE FOLLOWING, SERVICE TRACTION CONTROL, REDUCED POWER, STARTER DISABLED AND THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ALL AT ROUGHLY THE SAME TIME. MY CAR COMPLETELY DIED AND I HAD NO POWER STEERING. LUCKILY I WAS ABLE TO COAST OUT OF HARMS WAY AND GET TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. I CHECKED SOME WIRES UNDER THE HOOD AND DIDN'T FIND ANYTHING LOOSE. WHEN I ATTEMPTED TO START THE CAR BACK-UP, THE ONBOARD COMPUTER FLASHED, STARTER DISABLED. I SAT WITH THE CAR FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES AND TRIED ONCE MORE. THIS TIME IT STARTED AND RAN NORMAL, BUT THE CHECK ENGINE LIKE WAS ON(STILL IS). HOW SCARY IS THIS REALLY? ENOUGH TO MAKE ME HATE DRIVING THIS CAR ANYWHERE. NOT TO MENTION I'M A SINGLE DAD OF 4, WHO NEEDS TO GET TO WORK, SCHOOL AND MANY OTHER THINGS. *TR

WHILE DRIVING THE CAR THROUGH A PARKING LOT AT ROUGHLY 10-15 MPH THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON. AS IT WAS DISPLAYING THE MESSAGE FOR WHAT NEEDED TO BE CHECKED THE SERVICE TRACTION CONTROL, SERVICE STABILITRAK, AND ENGINE POWER REDUCED MESSAGES CAME ON. I HAVE BEEN ONLINE AND CHECK FORUM AFTER FORUM ABOUT IT AND HAVE FOUND HUNDREDS OF POSTS ABOUT THE SAME ISSUE IN THE SAME VEHICLES. WONDERING EUGENE GM WILL BE FORCED TO ISSUE A RECALL AND PUBLICLY ADDRESS THIS ISSUE. *TR

I WAS DRIVING ON THE INTERSTATE WHEN I REC'D THE FOLLOWING MESSAGES: SERVICE TRACTION CONTROL AND REDUCED ENGINE POWER. THE ENGINE LIGHT AND THE TRACTION CONTROL LIGHTS ALSO CAME ON. I WAS ABLE TO GO APPROX 50-55 MPH. I WAS VERY LUCKY THAT I WAS NEAR AN EXIT. AS I WAS EXITING, A MESSAGE CAME ON TELLING ME THAT THE POWER WAS BEING TURNED OFF OR STOPPED. I CAN'T REMEMBER THE EXACT WORDS. I THEN HAD NO ABILITY TO ACCELERATE AND MY ONLY OPTION WAS TO PULL OFF THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. EVEN THOUGH I WAS ABLE TO PULL OFF THE SIDE, IT WAS NOT IN A SAFE PLACE AND TRAFFIC WAS GOING BY AT THE SPEED OF 55-60 MPH AND I WAS BARELY OVER THE WHITE LINE. I CALLED A TOW TRUCK, AND HAD IT TOWED TO MY MECHANIC. THIS HAPPENED AT 4:15 ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON. MY MECHANIC DIDN'T LOOK AT IT UNTIL MONDAY AND COULD NOT FIND ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT. HE DROVE IT ALL OVER AND HE CHECKED EVERYTHING HE COULD THINK OF. I TRUST THIS MECHANIC. HE DID SAY THAT HE WAS AFRAID HE WOULD HAVE TO SEND ME TO THE DEALER TO HAVE IT LOOKED AT. I CAME HOME, GOOGLED THE PROBLEMS AND ENDED UP AT EDMUNDS.COM IN A FORUM FOR CHEVY OWNERS WITH THIS ISSUE. WHILE NO ONE WAS HURT THIS TIME, THAT IS JUST A BLESSING. HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL NEED TO BE HURT, MAIMED OR EVEN KILLED BEFORE THEY ISSUE A RECALL AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT A PROBLEM THAT IS VERY OBVIOUS. HOW MUCH MONEY AND TIME WILL I SPEND TAKING THIS TO A DEALER WHO DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEM AND WON'T DIAGNOSE IT CORRECTLY THE FIRST TIME? AMERICA WANTS AMERICANS TO BUY AMERICAN MADE PRODUCTS. I OWNED A FOREIGN VEHICLE FOR 9 YEARS AND IT NEVER LEFT ME STRANDED THE WAY THIS CHEVROLET IMPALA DID AFTER OWNING IT FOR 7 MONTHS! I THINK IT IS PAST TIME SOMETHING WAS DONE. FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE THE PROBLEM NOW AND FOR THOSE WHO ARE OUT THERE JUST WAITING FOR THIS TO HAPPEN TO THEM. SAFETY SHOULD COME FIRST! *TR

ALL CHEVROLET IMPALAS DATING BACK TO 2002-2009 HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THEIR TRACTION CONTROL SYSTEMS. THE ENGINE POWER IS REDUCED AND THE VEHICLE SLOWS IMMEDIATELY. THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN IGNORED BY CHEVROLET SINCE 2002. FORTUNATELY, NO ONE HAS BEEN KILLED. CHEVROLET DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM, OR SIMPLY CHOOSES TO IGNORE IT. HOWEVER BY SIMPLY READING COMPLAINTS ON THE INTERNET, IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THIS IS A WIDE-SPREAD PROBLEM AND A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS ONE. PUBLIC SAFETY SHOULD REQUIRE THE GOVERNMENT TO DISCIPLINE CHEVROLET FOR INTENTIONALLY REFUSING TO ADDRESS A POTENTIALLY LETHAL FLAW IN IT'S CHEVROLET IMPALA LINE. *TR

TRAVELING AT HIGHWAY SPEED ON 2 LANE ROAD, CHECK ENGINE AND TRACTION CONTROL LIGHTS ILLUMINATED THEN VEHICLE SHUT DOWN. LIGHTS AND RADIO WORKED BUT VEHICLE WOULD NOT TURN OVER. AFTER APPROXIMATELY 15 MINUTES VEHICLE CRANKED AND STARTED AND WAS DRIVABLE. TOOK TO CHEVROLET DEALER WHO MADE REPAIRS BY REPLACING 24 TERMINALS. VERBALLY TOLD ME THAT THERE WAS CORROSION ON WIRES ON THIS 2 YEAR OLD VEHICLE WITH BARELY 60,000 MILES. HAD THIS HAPPENED ON A MULTILANE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SHUTTING DOWN LIKE THIS COULD HAVE BEEN VERY DANGEROUS. *TR